Images
People with visual impairments, who are most likely using screen readers, cannot “see” images. They rely on alternative text that the screen reader reads out to them.
DO
DO NOT
- Alternative text (descriptions) need to be added to all images
- Put important information into images alone, provide a text version as well.
- Scanned documents are essentially images and the information will not be picked out by screen readers, avoid using these, especially publishing them on websites.
How to add Alternative Text to an image in M365
- Right click on an image
- Edit Alt Text
- Type a description or mark as decorative
- If using the Accessibility Checker: Select “Alt Text” and add your text in here
Decorative images are images just used to brighten up the presentation and not hold any value to the content of the document. If these images are purely for decoration you can mark this as such in the Alt text tool. This means a screen-reader will bypass this information.
Video
Videos and presentations should have a transcript provided in case people who are hard of hearing cannot hear the information. This is also beneficial to everyone, there are many people that choose to add subtitles to assist with watching a TV programme. Also in a busy office we very often choose to read the information rather than listen to it. This means making videos and presentations as accessible as possible can help out everyone.
If you are adding videos to YouTube there should be an option for subtitles so the user can enable these. You can read more about PowerPoint presentations here.